"Critics argue that giving amnesty to 12 to 30 million illegal aliens in the U.S. would have an immediate negative impact on America’s working and middle class — specifically black Americans and the white working class — who would be in direct competition for blue-collar jobs with the largely low-skilled illegal alien population." JOHN BINDER

Think Trump Will be Tough on Immigration? Consider His Company's Use of Guestworkers

By David Seminara

CIS Immigration Blog, February 26, 2016
. . .
I combed through the government databases detailing H-2B petitions and
here are some observations regarding the Trump Organization's use of
H-2B guest workers:

* In petitioning for workers, employers are supposed to prove that their
hiring need is "seasonal" and "temporary", yet Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club
has sought to import guest workers year after year, including right now.
(Their most recent petition was filed in July 2015 and the workers are
on contract at the resort until May 31, 2016.)

* Trump maintained at the debate on Thursday night that the jobs he had
filled with guest workers were hard to fill because they were only for
90 or 120 days. But in fact, the duration of the petitions was never
just three months. The work period for Mar-a-Lago's guest workers,
according to the petitions, is nearly always October 1 to May 31, which
is 8 months. On other occasions, his company petitioned for even longer
periods. For example, in 2009, the Trump National Golf Club petitioned
for guest workers for the period January 26 through November 20.

* I note that even during the height of the recession, this and other Trump properties were petitioning for workers.

* In 2009, again, during the height of the recession, the Trump
Organization used an H-2B broker called Más Labor to import workers. Más
Labor extols the benefits of Mexican workers on their website, which
allows employers to add guest workers to their online shopping carts.
"You'll never wonder if your workers are going to show up on Monday
morning and make it through a full work week," it reads. "MAS H2 workers
are dedicated to their families, their work and their employers.
They'll be there, ready to work hard for you. ... The only thing an H2
worker can do legally in the U.S. is work for their specified employer.
... For Mexican workers, seven to nine dollars an hour is about ten
times what could be earned in most jobs at home."
. . .http://www.cis.org/seminara/think-trump-will-be-tough-immigration-consider-his-companys-use-guestworkers

9.Aliens and Money: Let's Look at the Big Picture
By David North
CIS Immigration Blog, February 26, 2016
. . .
The other stack of money, some $50 billion-plus, is the sum of all the remittances currently flowing out
of our country every year. Much of this is untaxed earnings. With some
rather minor public policy adjustments, a significant fraction of those
funds, say $5-10 billion, could be caused to stay in America.
. . .
Virtually all the attention paid to these two topics is focused on the
little EB-5 program — including two congressional hearings in the last
few weeks.

Meanwhile, we can be grateful to Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) for calling
our attention to the huge outflow of remittances. Most of these
person-to-person transfers of money are from migrants, legal or illegal,
to relatives in the homeland. There are also transfers of criminal
moneys mixed in with these remittance flows. The latter angle is an
important public policy subject, but one I leave to others.

I wrote recently about the isthmus in southern Mexico through which
virtually all the Central American illegal migrants flow and which
offers enforcement opportunities. There is a similarly narrow channel
for the outward flow of remittances; it is through controllable bank and
wire transfers. The relatively tiny sums that can be carried, or
mailed, in cash or jewels or gold can be safely be ignored in a
conversation about remittances.

There are two obvious ways to reduce the outflow of tens of billions of
dollars from our economy, but the administration has no interest in
reducing remittances by shrinking the size of the illegal alien
population. The other way to reduce remittances is to use the wire and
banking systems to discourage them and to tax them. But before we
discuss the mechanics of such a program, let's return to Sen. Vitter's
contribution.
. . .http://www.cis.org/north/aliens-and-money-lets-look-big-picture

10.How About a Wall in Mexico That We Pay For?
By David North
CIS Immigration Blog, February 24, 2016
. . .
The suggestion is to construct a fence along an existing railroad, now
nearly abandoned, built by dreamers a little more than 100 years ago who
thought that they could entice ocean-to-ocean traffic away from the
about-to-be built Panama Canal and across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
instead. The dream became a nightmare when it became apparent that using
the canal was cheaper and faster than unloading freight at the Gulf of
Mexico end of the little railway, shipping it by rail, and then
re-loading it on ships at the Pacific end of the line. One website calls
it the "UnPanama".

The railway bears the Spanish initials FIT (Ferrocarril del Istmo de
Tehuantepec). It runs from sea to sea in a seamless line, though not in a
straight line, so it's about 190 miles long. There is a gap in the
mountains at this point, which made the rail line easier to build and to
maintain. Since the Isthmus is running east and west at this point, the
railroad runs roughly north (the Gulf of Mexico) to south (the
Pacific).
. . .
The relative ease of the construction of a fence along the FIT railway,
as opposed to along the U.S. southern border, is hard to overemphasize.
Here is a relatively level land route in which the railway already owns
all the real estate needed for the fence. The railway itself gives
instant access to the area where the fence is to be built. Construction
costs in Mexico are much lower in Mexico than in the States. There would
be not be ranches along the border, as there are on some segments of
our southern border, where part of the land would be one side of the
fence, and part on the other. The railway follows a much straighter line
than the Rio Grande, and so forth.

Above all, the total length would be just one-tenth the length of our
border with Mexico. This is not to suggest that we abandon efforts to
strengthen our own southern border, but the FIT fence would be an
extremely valuable tool in the American enforcement arsenal.
. . .http://www.cis.org/north/how-about-wall-mexico-we-pay-for

11.Court: DACA Aliens Can't Sue Georgia for In-State Tuition
By David North
CIS Immigration Blog, February 24, 2016
. . .
According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, several DACA
beneficiaries sued the board of regents of Georgia's state university
system over this issue. They were turned down by the board, by the trial
court, by the appeals court, and ultimately by the state's supreme
court.

The supreme court said, unanimously, that the DACA beneficiaries could
not sue the sovereign state of Georgia without its own consent, deciding
the case on that issue, rather than on the legal status of the aliens.

12.CBP Pressies Would Rather Talk about Hoverboards Than Illegal Aliens
By David North
CIS Immigration Blog, February 22, 2016
. . .
The hoverboard incident was one of many noted in CBP releases, and the
news of drug seizures seems to account for a large majority of these
press items. If you read the whole set of them you will find that there
are many different ways to try to smuggle drugs into the country, such
as hiding them in the panels of trucks, putting them in tightly sealed
bags within gas tanks or inside spare tires, and tucking them into
clothing. If is often the drug-sniffing dogs that get the credit for the
seizure.

Sometimes when an illegal alien who has also committed a violent crime
is located CBP writes about it, but rarely the significant work it does
in apprehending and/or turning back illegal aliens at the border.

13.Ambassador: U.S. Paying to Support Cuban Illegals in Costa Rica
By Kausha Luna
CIS Immigration Blog, February 24, 2016
. . .How much is the monetary contribution being made by the U.S.
government for the attention of Cubans who have not yet left Costa
Rica?

I would say it is significant.

So, while the Cuban illegal aliens themselves had to pay for their
transportation to the Rio Grande, the U.S. government helped pay for
their accommodations while in Costa Rica and then looked on as foreign
nations worked together to complete their smuggling journey north. Then,
once in the U.S., they are given immediate status under the obsolete
Cuban Adjustment Act, including full access to welfare benefits.
. . .http://www.cis.org/luna/ambassador-us-paying-support-cuban-illegals-costa-rica

Mexican professionals and students are coming to the United States on
tourist visas to work on marijuana farms and make quick money.

An article printed in the Excelsior, a Mexican newspaper, describes a
"new migratory trend towards the United States." This new trend is an
unprecedented flow of English-speaking Mexicans, aged 24 to 34, who
travel to the United States on a tourist visa to take advantage of the
marijuana harvest season in the "Emerald Triangle". The Emerald Triangle
is in Northern California, made up of Medocino, Humboldt, and Trinity
counties, and is the largest cannabis-producing region in the United
States and the world.
. . .
The quick money comes with risks, however. Firstly, how much money one
earns depends on the demand for labor; if one isn't working then he or
she is only spending money. Secondly, migrants searching for jobs on
these marijuana farms are compromising their security as they trek into
the mountains with people they just met, due to a job offer that may not
be real. Thirdly, when it is time to get paid, it is common to be held
at gunpoint and thrown off the property, or be threatened with calling
the police. Finally, organized crime is starting to get a grip on this
area, including Mexican cartels.
. . .http://www.cis.org/luna/mexicans-tourists-working-california-marijuana-farms

15.San Francisco Puts Sanctuary Before Funding
By Debra J. Saunders
Townhall.com, February 28, 2016
. . .
The Republican Congress is not of like mind. The new chairman of the
House Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees the Department of
Justice, Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, is poised to use Congress' power
of the purse to withhold federal law enforcement funds from sanctuary
cities. He told me, "There will be no more Kate Steinle murders, if I
can help it."

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch is on board. Wednesday she told the
subcommittee that the Bureau of Prisons will transfer released federal
inmates who are undocumented and due for deportation directly to ICE --
not to sanctuary cities, unless the sanctuary agrees only to release the
inmate to ICE. Culberson had nothing but praise for Lynch "for doing
the right thing."

Center for Immigration Studies Policy Director Jessica Vaughan is less
impressed. She sees "a very narrow response to what went wrong in the
Steinle case" that doesn't address the real problem: state and local
policies of obstruction. "Most criminal aliens are in state and local
custody instead of federal prison."
. . .
San Francisco stands to lose about $170,000 from the alien assistance
program alone. As a believer in the rights of local governments,
Culberson told me, he supports San Francisco's right to abstain from ICE
enforcement. But if San Francisco chooses to release "illegal aliens"
and turn them loose on the streets, "don't even ask for SCAAP funding."
. . .
That's not to say San Francisco pols don't believe in rules. When
undocumented immigrant Pedro Figueroa-Zarceno, 31, announced that San
Francisco police had referred him to ICE after he reported his car
stolen, the force launched an investigation -- on the police, not
Figueroa-Zarceno, who was facing a 2005 deportation order and was
convicted of drunken driving in 2012. "It's absurd that the city is
investigating the cop who did the right thing," quoth Vaughan, "instead
of the illegal alien, who's here in defiance of the law."
. . .http://townhall.com/columnists/debrajsaunders/2016/02/28/san-francisco-puts-sanctuary-before-funding-n2125386

16.Hillary vs. The Donald
By Patrick Buchanan
Townhall.com, February 26, 2016
. . .
On immigration, where are the polls that show Middle Americans
enthusiastic about increasing the numbers coming? Where is the majority
demanding amnesty or open borders?

The elites of Europe are as out of touch as America's.

Angela Merkel, Time's Person of the Year in 2015, is at risk of being
dumped in 2016 if she does not halt the next wave of Middle Eastern
refugees who will be arriving on Europe's shores when the seas calm in
the spring in the Aegean and the Mediterranean.

If we believe the immigration issue Trump has seized upon is explosive
here, look to Europe. In the Balkans and Central Europe, even in
Austria, the barriers are going up and the border guards appearing.

Mass migration from the Third World to the First World is not only
radicalizing America. It could destroy the European Union. Anger over
any more migrants entering the country is among the reasons British
patriots now want out of the EU.

America is crossing into a new era. Trump seems to have caught the wave, while Clinton seems to belong to yesterday.

17.By Attacking Trump on ‘H’ Visas Will Be Difficult for Candidates Who Support ‘H’ Visas
By Fred Bauer
National Review Online, February 25, 2016
. . .
Still, even if the hypocrisy charge might be a bit muddled, Trump’s
rivals could still try to attack him on this issue. However, that task
will be harder if these rivals themselves support guest-worker programs
in their current state and, especially, if they support expanding them.
Many proponents of guest-worker programs argue that such programs do not
hurt the American worker and are good for economic growth as a whole.
Thus, when attacking Trump for using guest workers, a supporter of
guest-worker programs finds himself in an odd position: Mr. Trump,
you’re such a hypocrite for hiring guest workers instead of Americans —
but no big deal because you actually helped the American economy grow
and ended up not displacing any American workers at all.

18.Donald Trump Thinks American Workers Aren’t Good Enough for the Trump Organization
By Ian Tuttle
National Review Online, February 25, 2016
. . .
Apparently, the first leg of the project was too important to entrust to
American workers. In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Federal Court,
members of House Wreckers Local 95 alleged that, to avoid paying union
employees their pension and welfare benefits, Trump (and the contractor
he used for the job, Kaszycki & Sons) brought in some 200
undocumented Polish workers to demolish the Bonwit Teller building that
then occupied the site of the future Trump Tower.
. . .http://www.nationalreview.com/article/431933/donald-trump-foreign-workers-american-workers-arent-good-enough

19.Marco Rubio’s Immigration Dilemma
Can he persuade conservatives that his immigration bill is really a reform?
By John Fonte
National Review Online, February 24, 2016
. . .
Chris Crane, the head of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
union, told Breitbart News that Schumer–Rubio was actually “weaker” than
current law. There were over 1,000 waivers, which gave the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) the power to bypass enforcement. The United
States Citizenship and Immigration Services Council, which represents
12,000 federal employees, denounced Schumer–Rubio, declaring: “It was
deliberately designed to undermine the integrity of our lawful
immigration system.”

Further, the ICE Officers Council stated: “The 1,200-page substitute
bill before the Senate will provide instant legalization and a path to
citizenship to gang members and other dangerous criminal aliens.”
Moreover, the Congressional Budget Office declared that S-744 would not
stop most illegal immigration. The CBO forecast that Schumer–Rubio would
reduce illegal immigration by only one-third to one-half. And the bill
would almost double legal (overwhelmingly low-skilled) immigration. This
is a much larger increase than under Kennedy–McCain.
. . .http://www.nationalreview.com/article/431799/marco-rubio-immigration

20.Water Amnesty for Illegal Aliens in Flint, Michigan
Judicial Watch Corruption Chronicle, February 26, 2016
. . .
This one involves the widely reported water situation in Flint, which is
located about 66 miles northwest of Detroit. Last year researchers
discovered that the city’s drinking water was contaminated with lead
from decaying old pipes. The problem arose after a switch in 2014 in the
city’s water source to save money. Soon complaints mounted that the
water smelled and looked strange and academic researchers discovered
that it was toxic. This all occurred after a 7-1 vote by the Flint City
Council to stop buying Detroit water and join a new pipeline project,
according to a local news report.

Now there’s a state of emergency and the feds have stepped in, supplying
the area with free bottled water and special filters to install at home
until the local water supply is clean. For weeks immigrant rights
groups complained that residents had to show identification to receive
their free goods from the government and illegal aliens were being left
out. National Spanish-language media outlets blasted the Obama
administration for discriminating against illegal aliens. One reported
that undocumented immigrants weren’t getting help for fear of being
deported, instead opting to drink contaminated water or pay out of
pocket to buy some. Another major Spanish-language newspaper wrote that
illegal immigrants and their children suffered lead poisoning and
couldn’t get clean emergency water because they didn’t have
identification cards. “When the National Guard went door to door
distributing potable water, many were scared to open because they feared
the uniformed persons were immigration agents who would deport them,”
the paper wrote.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which claims to combat bigotry and
protect civil rights for all, joined the cause expressing “horror” and
“indignation” that the government denied undocumented immigrants free
water and filters because they couldn’t provide a photo ID or Social
Security number. In a Spanish-language statement the group’s Michigan
chapter referred to news reports that Flint-area fire department
stations distributing water were requiring identification. But even in
places that aren’t requiring ID, illegal immigrants are scared to come
out and get their potable water out of fear that they will be deported,
the ADL stresses in its announcement. “We are calling on the National
Guard to order all fire departments and other centers distributing
supplies that no one be rejected.”
. . .https://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2016/02/water-amnesty-for-illegal-aliens-in-flint-michigan/

21.Pope Francis Keeps Listening to the Wrong Peruvian
By Monica Showalter
Investor's Business Daily, February 19, 2016
. . .
Fact is, U.S. Americans are quite a bit kinder in their charity and in
fact more generous than anyone else in admitting newcomers — one million
new immigrants each year at last count.

So the slave-driver charge doesn’t exactly hold water out in the world’s
hotbed of capitalism. How could Pope Francis get it so wrong?

Maybe it has something to do with which Peruvian he listens to. I’m not
kidding. The best and the worst ideas from the South American continent
seem to come from that country, and there’s evidence that the Pope hears
only one side of the Peruvian coin. To wit, his “cordial” meetings with
one Gustavo Gutierrez, S.J., known as the founder of liberation
theology, an unholy mash-up of Marxism, guerrilla gun-fighting and
Catholicism. For a long time, the Church frowned on the idiocy. But
since Pope Francis took the papal throne, he’s apparently made the idea
welcome again and met with Gutierrez more than once, reportedly on
cordial terms.

The Peruvian he’s ignoring is the one who has the real answers to
poverty on every continent — and he got that answer by carefully
studying the history of capitalism as it is practiced in the United
States, digging through dusty county clerk offices and file cabinets
full of old property records.

Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto (no, not the conquistador explorer
he shares a name with!) found that the reason why capitalism — and all
the prosperity it brings — flourishes in the U.S. is because of its
freedom. And that freedom has a very specific invisible architecture. De
Soto’s groundbreaking 2000 book, “The Mystery Of Capital: Why
Capitalism Triumphs In The West And Fails Everywhere Else,” is a
masterly study of the difference between the prosperous U.S. and the
un-prosperous third world, both of which claim to be capitalist.
. . .http://www.investors.com/politics/capital-hill/pope-francis-keeps-listening-to-the-wrong-peruvian/

22.Talking Head Twit of the Year Contest
By Ann Coulter
Human Events Online, February 24, 2016
. . .
After Trump’s huge victory in New Hampshire and then in South Carolina,
did it occur to TV bookers to call any of the people who got it right?

Alex Marlow, editor in chief of Breitbart News, explained everything
that was about to happen in this race back on the Sept. 14 edition of
CNN’s Erin Burnett show.

While all the other “strategists” gibbered about Trump losing the
Hispanic vote, Marlow said: “Trump is growing the big tent. ... Trump’s
policies are appealing to blacks. There are even some polls out there,
like a survey USA poll, saying Trump is actually doing fine with
Latinos.”

In the Nevada primary on Tuesday, Trump not only won the Hispanic vote;
he not only won 17 points more of the Hispanic vote than his next
closest rival; but his Latino vote nearly matched that of the two Latino
candidates combined.

In one of the few times you might have heard this point expressed on
television airwaves, Marlow said that the No. 1 issue for Breitbart
News’ 20 million readers, “has consistently been — since last year —
immigration.They are looking for someone who is going to seal the border
and prioritize border security as No. 1.”

23.Mr. Trump: More Specifics About Mexico Paying for the Wall
By Silvio Canto, Jr.
American Thinker, February 24, 2016
. . .
Mr. Trump wants to build a fence on the border. Frankly, I'm OK with
that, although it's hard to see how beneficial a border fence would be
in the open and desolate areas of Arizona and Mexico. I would rather see
a military presence in the open areas, because it is cartels, who use
these routes. Also, let's remember that many illegal immigrants are
simply flying in and overstaying their tourist visas.

Mr. Trump also wants Mexico to pay for the fence. It is one of his most
popular lines. Unfortunately, he has not explained how exactly Mexico
will do that.

A Trump supporter told me recently that he plans to tax "remittances,"
currently about $25 billion. How do you determine whether Jose sending
money to his mother is illegal or not? My point is that there are a lot
of Mexicans here legally who send money to their families. Is Western
Union going to be requiring documents before wiring money? Is 7-11 going
to require documents when someone buys a $100 pre-paid Visa? My point
is that this is very difficult to do.

24.Why is Everything Amnesty?
By Silvio Canto, Jr.
American Thinker, February 26, 2016
. . .
Who is pardoning any group or letting people stay here without consequences?

The GOP should be for an immigration solution that enforces the law
against employers and protects the border. At the same time, what is
wrong with offering some of those here a chance to stay here? It would
go like this:

1) The illegal immigrant would be given a chance to apply for a work
visa supported by an employer's letter that a job actually exists;

2) He or she would undergo a full criminal background check including
fingerprints. We will also check with the home country to verify that
the applicant is not married here and back home;

3) The applicant will pay a fine for violating the law and or not filing tax returns;

4) He or she will be under a period of probation where the person could be deported in case of any violation of law;

5) No path to citizenship or green card will be available to this person; and,

6) Employers will be harshly punished, including jail time, for hiring someone without papers.

25.Immigration or an iPhone
We don’t have an encryption problem; we have a Muslim immigration problem.
By Daniel Greenfield
FrontPageMag.com, February 25, 2016
. . .
Terrorists adapt to the terrain. They use the native population as
protective coloration. They can find a way to transform a shoe, a tube
of toothpaste or instant messaging on a game console into a terror tool.
Just as the left can 'politicize' everything, Muslim terrorists can
'terrorize' everything. When everything is a potential terrorist tool,
then there can be no such thing as privacy or civil rights.

Muslim immigration is forcing us to constantly choose between our lives
and our civil liberties. It's a Catch 22 decision with no good choices.
Terrorists push governments toward totalitarianism so that their own
alternative totalitarian state starts to seem like a less terrible
alternative. But the refusal to fight terrorism also makes the
totalitarian state of the terrorists more viable.
. . .http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/261941/immigration-or-iphone-daniel-greenfield

26.Hypocrisy Watch: Trump Hired Hundreds of Foreign Workers For Jobs Americans Wanted
By John Merline
Investors Business Daily, February 25, 2016
. . .
A Reuters report from last summer found Trump’s various companies had
“sought to import at least 1,100 foreign workers on temporary visas
since 2000.” One of the companies applied for temporary work visas for
250 fashion models.

Trump told the Times that the only reason those Americans didn’t get
jobs at the Palm Beach resort was because “they weren’t qualified, for
some reason. There are very few qualified people during the high season
in the area.”

He went on to say that “Certain areas, in really successful areas, where
we can’t get help, many people do that,” meaning they import workers.
“That’s a good thing. Otherwise, you hurt your business.”

From a free-market perspective, Trump is absolutely right to say this.
Businesses should be free to hire whomever they want to get a job done,
at prices they can afford, even if those workers have to be imported

But that’s not what Trump has been telling his audiences on the campaign trail over the past eight months.

27.Will Trump's Wall Protect or Imprison?
By Alan Keyes
WorldNetDaily.com, February 25, 2016
. . .
Indeed, Donald Trump’s promised border wall effectively illustrates the
prudence of Washington’s admonition. Mr. Trump says the wall will be
used to keep illegals out. But a wall once divided Berlin, Germany. It
symbolized an imprisoned people. It would be ironic if our failure to
stop the elitist interests Trump really represents results in an elitist
tyranny that turns the border wall we intend for our security into an
instrument of control intended to bar our posterity from escaping it.

Don’t get me wrong. I favor, and worked with others to support, the
construction of appropriate obstacles along our borders, including
walls, fences and electronic surveillance, as appropriate. I did so
while Mr. Trump was decrying people like us as “mean-spirited” and maybe
even funding or applauding people who ridiculed and hated us. But where
liberty is concerned, our real security is not just in walls and
fences. It is in the loyal hearts and decent will of the guardians who
police them. If Donald Trump is the man his actual record suggests, we
have every reason to beware of any wall he erects – for when it serves
the interest of his factional allegiance, his true persona will prevail
in the use of it, even though it be against our rights and liberty.
. . .http://www.wnd.com/2016/02/will-trumps-wall-protect-or-imprison/

28.Trump’s Brilliant 30 Second Indictment of an Open Borders Policy
By Kevin Collins
CoachIsRight.com, February 22, 2016
. . .
Trump has been in contact with Jamiel Shaw-the victim’s father-and is helping him tell the story of his son’s death.

The story is so powerful that Trump should use this spot over and over
throughout the whole campaign. It is NOT just an appeal to Blacks; it is
an appeal to all Americans with a clear message: illegal aliens must be
stopped and kicked out.

Trump arranged to have Shaw address the crowd at a recent rally in Los Angeles. This is what he said: “To
see somebody, especially a billionaire, come out. I can’t even get a
neighborhood politician to come out, that’s why it’s so surreal to
me...”

Shaw continued: “People are looking at immigration as just an
immigration issue, but people are dying. It’s a fact. What good is the
economy, healthcare, going to school, if people are dying? Trump is
doing things he doesn’t have to do. He can buy a whole island and get
away from crime…. This was the first time I thought everything’s really
gonna be all right. To me, he was sent from God.”
. . .http://www.coachisright.com/trumps-brilliant-30-second-indictment-open-borders-policy/

29.Solving The H-1B Visa Problem
By Tom Giovanetti
TechCrunch.com, February 20, 2016
. . .
How shall we break this impasse and make progress on what should be one
of the easiest incremental reforms in the immigration reform debate? A
bipartisan commission likely to end in gridlock? Raw political “we won,
you lost” power? Further inaction, which just exacerbates the problem?

Here’s a better idea — a market mechanism that would determine once and
for all not only who is right, but what the market-clearing price for
skilled immigrant labor actually is, thus informing future immigration
policy formation.

Right now, H-1B visas are issued on a first come, first served basis,
for a flat fee, and the number is arbitrarily capped. Such a system
tells us nothing about how much an H-1B visa (and thus a skilled
immigrant worker) is actually worth to an employer. And because the
number is capped and the fee low, the system actually encourages a
lottery or jackpot approach — in other words, employers would apply for
as many visas as possible, hoping to get enough. This is an irrational
system.

It would make much more sense to allocate H-1B visas via an auction
process. If H-1B visas were auctioned to employers each year in a
sealed-bid process, with the bids allocated from highest to lowest until
the available permits were exhausted, supply and demand would establish
the market-clearing price for the right to hire a skilled immigrant
worker.
. . .http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/20/solving-the-h-1b-visa-problem/

30.The Trump Surge: It's All About Security
By Marguerite Creel
American Thinker, February 28, 2016
. . .
By summer 2015, there was no candidate, except Trump, who had even begun
to galvanize the base. But even at this late date, GOP leadership and
financiers seem reluctant to put their personal economic interests on
hold. Moreover, Trump identifies with Americans who recognize the
realpolitik black hole that threatens their homeland. Traditional
Americans want to vote for a high-energy candidate whose campaign
reaffirms the Republican Party as the protector of security and the
American way of life.

The political insiders' failure to consolidate behind a solid
closed-border candidate led to a vacuum on the pre-eminent issue of
illegal immigration. It was in this void that Trump's candidacy evolved.
His genius media campaign proved to dovetail nicely with commonsense
conservative positions such as middle-class tax relief, veterans' health
care and fair trade policies with China.
. . .http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/02/the_trump_surge_its_all_about_security.html

31.Will DOJ Push For Illegal Alien Voting in 2016 Fall Flat in Court?
By Robert Romano
Conservative Review, February 28, 2016
. . .
But if the injunction is granted by Judge Leon and the new federal voter
registration form is removed, then Alabama, Georgia and Kansas would
have to begin processing federal applications to the state voter rolls
once again even if there is no proof of citizenship.

This therefore is an attempt by the Justice Department to settle this
case and invalidate the application of the states’ laws without even a
fair hearing of including the state requirements on the federal form.

32.Fighting Illegal Alien Voting
By John Velisek
CoachIsRight.com, February 25, 2016
. . .
Advocacy groups made up of academics, law professors, local and federal
politicians of the progressive Democrat party and groups that advocate
through the socialist La Raza and Soros’ Open Society have filed a
lawsuit against the states of Arizona, Georgia and Kansas. These and a
number of other states supported a decision by the U.S. Election
Assistance Commission allowing only legal citizens to register to vote.
The states are requiring a satisfactory form of proof of citizenship to
assure only citizens will be voting.

Incredible, though understandable, is the fact that the Obama Justice
Department has joined with the advocacy groups rather than defending one
of its own agencies. The Justice Department has gone so far as to take
away all authority from the EAC, the only federal agency working to
protect the states from voting by illegal aliens.
. . .http://www.coachisright.com/fighting-illegal-alien-voting/

33.Good Fences
By Clarice Feldman
American Thinker, February 21, 2016
. . .
Robert Frost wrote in “Mending Walls” that “good fences make good
neighbors”, and this week it appears that people in this country and the
UK are chock full of citizens who agree. As I explain, the immigration
crises both here and in Europe have underscored growing anger at the
arrogance and incompetence of unelected bureaucrats and their rules.

The big election kerfuffle of the week was the Pope’s ill-considered
attack on those who want to limit illegal immigration from Mexico by
building a wall at the border. To many it seemed an attack on Donald
Trump whose campaign against illegal immigration struck a receptive
chord with voters. Many noted the hypocrisy of such a statement coming
from the head of the Vatican state which is itself surrounded by a wall
erected in the ninth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries to protect
against pirates and invaders.
. . .http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/02/good_fences.html

34.Conservatism Inc. “Experts” Wrong Again: Exit Polls Show Trump’s Success IS About Immigration
By Washington Watcher
VDare.com, February 26, 2016
. . .
But the fact that the vast majority of voters back the Muslim
moratorium, which virtually no public figure other than Trump will
support, shows how salient the issue is. Moreover, immigration is a much
more specific issue than “the economy” or “national security,” and so
it’s not surprising “immigration” is not the top issue. Given that most
GOP candidates have the same positions on national security and the
budget, immigration can still be the deciding factor for many voters who
did not list it as their favorite.

What about Amnesty, i.e. a path to legalization? On its face, the
results are a bit disappointing. However, it’s worth noting that the
question is phrased in a misleading fashion.

35.Obama Changes Law: Allows Immigrants with Blistering STDs and Leprosy into US
By Jim Hoft
Gateway Pundit, February 23, 2016
. . .
In his first year in office, President Obama lifted an entry ban on foreigners with HIV.

Most U.S. cases of leprosy occur in people who traveled to the United
States from areas of the world where the bacterial infection is endemic.

36.Obama Embraces Illegals with STDs
By Jeannie DeAngelis
American Thinker Blog, February 27, 2016
. . .
n 2009, the president pulled HIV from the list of diseases that bar
immigrants from coming to the U.S. Now, according to a report issued by
the non-partisan Center for Immigration Studies, Obama’s Health and
Human Services has publicly stated that the cost of handling and
treating immigrants with STDs does not impact taxpayers in a significant
way.

Moreover, even though, by nature, venereal disease is contagious, the
Obama administration has also decreed that specific communicable
diseases are no longer “of public health significance.” Unfortunately,
that opinion only applies to those who are thankfully not among the
victims sexually abused by one of the 2,000 illegals in Texas, who, with
or without a sore on their private parts, were deported because of sex
crimes.

That “not…in a significant way” guarantee comes from the same government
that had a virtual non-response when undocumented workers illegally
employed in places like Chipotle passed along pathogens, which sorry to
say, were likely transported into customer’s intestines via Crispy Corn
Tacos contaminated with human feces.

So, if having an oozing genital sore does not prohibit a person entry
into the U.S., how is the Obama administration going to ensure that
immigrants, who tend to gravitate toward food service, diligently follow
proper hygiene protocol after manhandling their genitalia?

N.C. Deputy Ambushed by Four Gangbangers: Are the Assailants Aliens or Citizens?

By Dan Cadman

CIS Immigration Blog, February 22, 2016

Police Magazine is carrying the story of an off-duty,
plainclothes deputy sheriff from Wake County, N.C., who was at a child's
birthday party when he was ambushed by four known gang members:
"Gabriel Moreno, 39, of Knightdale; Miguel Angel Moreno, 25, of Wendell;
Remi Nambo, 27, of Raleigh; and Delfino Alejo, 27, of Garner". After
the deputy, also Hispanic, arrived with the children at the party
location a lone male asked if he could speak to him alone; when they
stepped outside, three other men joined the first individual, calling
the deputy a "pig" and assaulting him with fists, feet, and weapons.
They have now been charged with a variety of felonies.

"Marco Rubio is probably in the worst position. His bill would have
doubled legal immigration for the first decade after passage (granting
more than 30 million green cards in ten years, when you add in the
amnesty). The Schumer-Rubio bill also would have nearly doubled the
admission of “temporary” workers, which the Congressional Research
Service identified as a driver of new illegal immigration in the future."

Sen. Jeff Sessions has been instrumental
in giving voice to public concern over excessive importation of foreign
workers and its effects on jobs, government budgets, schools,
assimilation, security, and so on.

I get why respectable Republicans aren’t inclined to take her advice,
but Ann Coulter nailed it, in August: “If they want to undermine Trump,
take his issue.” Meaning immigration.

But how? They can’t “take his issue” with yet more promises to secure
the border. Those promises are hard to take seriously after the
Schumer-Rubio push for amnesty and increased immigration in 2013-2014,
the McCain-Kennedy version in 2005-2007, and Dubya’s initial foray that
was buried by 9/11.

Try as they might, Trump’s professional-politician rivals won’t get any
traction by either echoing or attacking his call for a wall and
increased deportations.

But the public debate on immigration has moved beyond the simplistic
“legal good, illegal bad” clichés, to focus on the actual level of
immigration, most of it legal. Sen. Jeff Sessions has been instrumental
in giving voice to public concern over excessive importation of foreign
workers and its effects on jobs, government budgets, schools,
assimilation, security, and so on.

This is where Trump was, and still is, vulnerable. As the New
York Times story mentioned by Charles documents, Trump has made
extensive use of guestworker visas to import foreigners to do “jobs
Americans won’t do,” actually turning away almost all American job
applicants.

Nor was this unknown. Reuters wrote about it in August. The Miami CBS affiliate reported on it in September.

So, to borrow from Ross Douthat, what are Trump’s rivals waiting for?
Why haven’t they pursued this obvious line of attack, one that strikes
directly at Trump’s key strength, one that casts doubt on his desire to
“Put American Workers First“?Because they all want more immigration. It’s hard to point out
the disconnect between the call for “immigration moderation” in Trump’s
immigration platform (something he never actually says out loud) and his
own business decisions when you yourself are in favor of immigration immoderation.

Marco Rubio is probably in the worst position. His bill would have
doubled legal immigration for the first decade after passage (granting
more than 30 million green cards in ten years, when you add in the
amnesty). The Schumer-Rubio bill also would have nearly doubled the
admission of “temporary” workers, which the Congressional Research
Service identified as a driver of new illegal immigration in the future.

Nor has Rubio ever renounced this aspect of his bill. When asked at the
debate last month in South Carolina, “Why are you so interested in
opening up borders to foreigners when American workers have a hard
enough time finding work?”, he let forth a panicky cascade of non
sequiturs so non-sequitur-y that I’m surprised Maria Bartiromo didn’t
just laugh in his face.

And, as John Fonte pointed out on the home page yesterday, Rubio’s
“first post-Gang of Eight legislative proposal is not related to
enforcement but, instead, advocates more ‘guest workers’ and expanding
permanent immigration” – the infamous I-Squared bill, that could
quadruple H-1b visas and increase immigration in various other ways.

Cruz (whom I’ll be voting for Tuesday) isn’t in a much better position
to attack Trump on immigration. True, his immigration plan includes
“Halt any increases in legal immigration so long as American
unemployment remains unacceptably high” and he’s co-sponsored a bill
with Sessions to dramatically limit the H-1b program. But in the past he
sponsored a measure to quintuple H-1b visas, and even now doesn’t call
for actual cuts in immigration.

Conviction is surely part of the reason. While there is little support
for increased immigration among the public at large (North Korea is more
popular with Americans that increased immigration), there is widespread
support for it among elites. I think that’s probably the main
explanation for Jeb and Cruz.

But – and perhaps I’m being uncharitable here – I think money is a big
part of the explanation for Rubio’s mulish insistence on ever-increasing
immigration (as it was for Walker’s unwillingness to do more than hint
at immigration cuts). When a bill to increase immigration was being
considered in 2000, Tom Davis, then a member of the House Republican
leadership, identified the issue: “This is not a popular bill with the
public. It’s popular with the CEOs.” He elaborated elsewhere on the
importance of immigration to donors: “This is a very important issue for
the high-tech executives who give the money.”

But whether from conviction or calculation, the end result is the same –
one of the potentially most productive lines of attack against Trump
has been ignored by his opponents. Both as a matter of policy and of
politics, “numbers clearly are of the essence.”